


So You're Marrying Someone From Another Dimension

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Cultural Differences, F/F, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Misunderstandings, Multi, Wedding Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 00:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19262257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: “In Nohr,” Xander said, catching on quick and placing his hand over Laslow’s, “wedding and engagement rings are traditionally worn on the left hand.”or“Selena,” Camilla said from in front of the mirror, comb still caught in her thick locks. Her hand had stilled mid-brush. “You’d tell me if something was bothering you, yes?”orThere was a ring in Leo’s drawer.





	1. pride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kimium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimium/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIMIUM! 
> 
> It's Kimium's birthday today, and though I've been slacking with writing as of late due to my current life schedule, I'm never too busy for a birthday gift! She's been incredibly patient and supportive with me these past few month and so deserves the best. She gave me a list of prompts to choose from, and so I wrote this based on one of those, plus a hc we mentioned to each other once. The prompt will be at the bottom of the fic so as to avoid any spoilers.
> 
> Kimium is a very supportive writer and friend, and I'm very glad to gift this to her. I hope it's a fun read. And as always, feel free to point out any grammatical mistakes as you read!

“In Nohr,” Xander said, catching on quick and placing his hand over Laslow’s, “wedding and engagement rings are traditionally worn on the left hand.”

Laslow froze, ring caught halfway down a knuckle on his right hand. His mouth was still caught around the _yes, yes, of course_ he’d blurted not thirty seconds earlier when Xander had pulled out the ring. He couldn’t remember any other words just yet.

“Oh,” he said dumbly.

Impossibly, his face flushed even deeper with embarrassment. His whole body was hot for a million and one reasons, his eyes stinging with unshed tears, and every thudding heartbeat in Laslow’s chest almost drowned out Xander’s words.

Thankfully, Xander seemed to realize that. Or he just wanted an excuse to touch Laslow, which Laslow would have given him for free.

Xander helped guide the ring from Laslow’s right hand to his left. His hands were larger than Laslow’s own, though no less callused. The ring slid onto Laslow’s hand easily. Xander’s fingers lingered before pulling away

“It’s beautiful,” Laslow said again, curling his fingers to get used to the new weight. The only ring he’d ever worn before had been his mother’s, and that had never fit properly. Now, too small to wear, it sat in a special box in his room.

Wearing Xander’s ring—the ring Xander had bought specially _for Laslow_ —felt entirely different.

He looked up. Xander looked back with an expression Laslow had never seen him make before.

It was positively lovely, Laslow thought. He wanted to melt right then and there.

“Oh,” Xander echoed teasingly. His mouth curled upwards in an awkward, very Xander-like smile.

Laslow squeezed his hand.

“I can’t wait to marry you,” he whispered, feeling like it was some sort of secret—a secret he wanted to scream from the rooftops and keep to himself a little longer at the same time.

Xander squeezed back.

“Nor I, you,” he said. “But let’s try to focus on one thing at a time.”

He meant the war, Laslow knew. But he leaned in to kiss Xander anyway.

They did a lot of kissing over those next few days.

* * *

“I thought I was the irresponsible one,” Laslow joked more than a week later, plopping himself down next to Xander on the healer’s cot with a grin to hide the worry. “And yet here you go, nearly dying right at the end.”

Xander grunted in reply. He waited very dutifully as the healer continued wrapping bandages around his chest, nodding in all the right places during her instructions not to strain himself for the next two days and to return he next morning for another round of healing magic. Laslow complimented her on her expert bandaging skills, shoving aside the pinch of worry in his chest at the sight of discarded pink-tinged bandages laying in a bucket by Xander’s bedside. They both ignored him.

When the healer left and they were more or less alone in the tent—as alone as they could be when surrounded by bustling healers and the celebratory injured, anyway—Xander looked at him.

“I’m not dying,” he said. “I didn’t even come close to it.”

Laslow knew that. It felt better to hear it from Xander’s mouth anyway.  

“So you say,” he teased, “but you’re the one laying in the healer’s tent right now.”

Xander was already reaching for the spare shirt Laslow had brought him. The shirt he’d worn under his armor had become too dirty and torn to be salvaged.

“I’ve already been dismissed,” Xander said, slipping his arms into his shirt and not even flinching when the movement pulled at the bandages. “I’m not bedridden.”

With anyone else, Laslow would have rolled his eyes. Since it was Xander, Laslow batted his hands away from the buttons on his shirt instead.

“Here, let me,” he said, ignoring Xander’s look and doing up Xander’s shirt with practiced ease. “I’m still technically your retainer until you find a replacement anyway.”

“If you’re so insistent on doing your job, maybe I won’t find a new replacement.”

Laslow didn’t realize Xander was joking until he looked up through his bangs and saw Xander’s face. His own grin widened into something more genuine in response.

“We’ll see about that,” he said.

It only took a minute to button Xander’s shirt up completely. When he was finished, Laslow’s hands lingered near Xander’s collar. He couldn’t bear to pull away just yet. His heart skipped a beat at the memory of Xander’s grunt of pain, of seeing the red spill past the slits in his armor.

“Laslow?” Xander said curiously.

Laslow shut his eyes and leaned forward, burying his face into the side of Xander’s neck, careful not to press against Xander’s side too hard. Everyone walking by could clearly see them, but for once, he wasn’t embarrassed.

Even injured, Xander was a stiff wall of muscle. He didn’t make a sound when Laslow leaned against him. But Laslow didn’t mind that either.

“I’m just really glad you’re safe,” he said into Xander’s skin.

It took longer than he thought it would for Xander to wrap his arms around Laslow in return. But eventually, he did.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Xander said quietly.

Laslow curled his fingers into Xander’s shirt and breathed in.

* * *

They announced their engagement from the gates of the castle, which was embarrassing as hell.

Oh, Laslow was happy about it for sure. And there would be messengers sent throughout the city and even further through Nohr to inform the other territories as well. The Hoshido royals had been informed before the Nohr and Hoshido armies had even split ways, but a messenger had been dispatched for Castle Shirasagi for formality’s sake all the same.

He was marrying the crown prince—soon to be King—of Nohr. Of course everyone and their mother was going to hear about it.

And Laslow _loved_ Xander. There was nothing embarrassing about that.

No, the embarrassing part came from standing in front of the throngs of people who had gathered to hear the “special announcement” from the crown prince himself.

There were just _so many people_. And they were all looking at Laslow and Xander, standing atop a podium next to the chosen announcer. Even with all of Xander’s siblings and the other retainers standing behind them, Laslow couldn’t help but feel all eyes were on _him_ and him alone. It was enough to make a lesser man faint.

Thank goodness he’d done a few makeshift performances for his comrades in during the war, he thought. He was nowhere near as capable as his mother in front of a crowd just yet, but Laslow could stand silently next to Xander and listen while other people spoke with ease. He did it all the time.

Part of Laslow wanted to reach out and take Xander’s hand in his own for some comfort. But Xander stood tall with his hands clasped behind his back, so Laslow did the same. He didn’t think this was how marriage announcements went in Ylisse, but—

Well, Laslow was far from home.

Finally, when the announcer got past all the formalities and got to the actual _engagement_ part of it, Xander reached across the gap and took Laslow’s hand in his own.

At last, it felt like Laslow could breathe again. He grasped Xander’s hand hard. He even stole a glance in Xander’s direction, but when he saw Xander wasn’t looking, he pretended to return his attention to the crowd.

The announcer droned on about his and Xander’s engagement for another minute or so. She sounded less excited than he imagined the announcement for Chrom’s wedding had been; the announcer read the scroll in her hands like one might read a particularly boring book.

Then again, Laslow mentally amended with amusement, Chrom had probably made the announcement himself. He had seemed like that type of man.

The announcement was over before he realized. Xander dropped his hand without warning, making Laslow’s head jerk slightly in surprise as he looked down at now empty space. Then everyone was clapping, crowd and royalty and all. Laslow hastened to follow in suit.

When the crowd began to depart and the guests of honor were stepping down from the podium, Laslow reached for Xander’s hand again. With the bustle everyone moving around, however, too many people passed between them for Laslow to grab onto Xander easily and Xander didn’t notice. So Laslow dropped his hand.

He officially moved into Xander’s chambers later that night.

* * *

He didn’t think about it at first.

Truthfully, Laslow hadn’t _noticed_ anything at first. And when he did, he chalked it up to misreading the atmosphere.

But eventually it grew to be too much to ignore. At night, in the comfort of their bedroom, Xander was exactly the same as he’d been before they’d returned to Nohr. He held Laslow close in bed and whispered things Laslow didn’t plan on sharing with anybody else. He let Laslow lean over the back of his chair when Xander stayed up studying documents at his desk. Sometimes he even took Laslow up on his offer for a massage.

In public, however—

“I’m here!” Laslow announced, throwing the door open. His clothes were surely a bit disheveled from the rush, so he hastened to straighten them as he shut the door behind himself.

A group of equally stern looking men and women looked up at him in unison.

At the head of the table, Xander dryly said, “So it seems.”

Laslow ducked his head, abashed, and rounded the table with some haste. Xander nodded at one of the council members, who nodded back solemnly and continued where she’d left off. Laslow listened with one ear as he rounded the end of the long table, running his hand over the edge of Xander’s chair as he passed.

Xander leaned away. Subtly and without looking up. Probably nobody noticed but Laslow that the ends of his fingers didn’t graze the tips of Xander’s hair like they should have.

Laslow took the empty seat beside Xander without comment.

After about an hour of reports on rebuilding efforts and which towns needed the most relief first—which was _very_ important, and Laslow _was_ paying attention, truly—Laslow noticed one of Xander’s hands was under the table, in his lap. Subtly, Laslow let his own hand drop out of sight. He inched towards Xander, letting their pinkies brush.

Xander pulled his hand away and began to shuffle with several papers in front of him while the councilor spoke.

Laslow tried not to let it get to him.

When that failed, he told himself to at least not let it show.

Some time later, Xander said, “Meeting dismissed.”

Everyone nodded in acknowledgement and began to rise from their chairs, mumbling amongst one another about this and that. Laslow and Xander rose as well, but when Laslow didn’t move towards the door, Xander didn’t either.

At last, everyone trickled out of the room. The final council member shut the door behind herself.

“Are you upset at me?” Laslow blurted once they were alone.

Xander glanced at him dryly, shuffling the remaining papers into a pile. “Aside from your chronic tardiness, you mean?”

“No, really. Besides that.”

Something must have shown in his face because Xander dropped the papers. He turned, giving Laslow his full attention.

“No, not in the slightest,” he said. “Have I given you a reason to believe I’m upset with you?”

The evenness of Xander’s voice helped loosen something in Laslow. He relaxed somewhat and made sure to cover up any lingering unease with a smile.

“Only a little,” he joked. “I was starting to get the wrong impression about what constitutes an engagement in Nohr.”

Xander’s eyes rose even higher at that. “Have I truly misled you somehow?”

Laslow shook his head. He couldn’t imagine Xander ever purposely misleading him. The man was almost always upfront, even when it took the fun out of things.

“No,” he said. “It’s probably all in my head anyway.”

Which may have been true, even if it didn’t feel like it. The thought of blurting it all out and have Xander tell him how ridiculous and needy he was being was almost embarrassing enough to keep from Laslow saying anything more.

“Please,” Xander insisted. “If you have concerns, I appreciate being let in on them.”

Well, when he asked so _bluntly_ —

“It’s just…” Laslow started. “It’s probably nothing, but…”

“Yes?” Xander crossed his arms.

Laslow shrugged, purposely careless. “Just seems like you’ve been a little colder than usual lately, is all.”

“Have I?” Xander furrowed his brow like he was thinking back. “I apologize. I didn’t notice myself.”

“It’s alright,” Laslow said quickly, already relieved. “You just kept brushing me off back there, and, well…”

He’d been brushing Laslow for several days. Ever since they had returned to the capitol, truthfully. But Laslow wasn’t one to go pointing fingers when he didn’t have to. They were still sharing a bedroom, after all. They’d stood in front of all of the city and announced their impending marriage. That was as public as it got.

He forced himself to laugh. “I was starting to think Nohr had some sort of chastity extreme chastity laws or something.”

Xander gave him a flat look. Laslow was certain he was remembering all the nights they had shared a bedroll. He felt his own cheeks heat up at the memory.

“You know for a fact that’s not true,” Xander said.

Laslow laughed again. “I’m aware. Sorry, I know that’s quite ridiculous. It just seemed like you were trying not to touch me back there.”

“During the meeting?” Xander asked. “You shouldn’t try to distract me when we’re doing serious work.”

“I know, I know,” Laslow laughed with a wave of his hand. “But I mean other times too. Like whenever we pass by in the halls or eat with the others and whatnot. But I know you’re not really avoiding me. It’s just in my head.”

This was the part where Xander was supposed to say, “Don’t be ridiculous,” and then Laslow would make another joke about making up for lost time. Then they would kiss, and Laslow would prod him about tea.

Instead, Xander wrinkled his brow and said, “Of course I am.”

Laslow cocked his head. “Pardon?”

“I _am_ trying not to touch you when we’re in public,” Xander said factually. “You know that’s not how things are done.”

Laslow waited for some further clarification, but it didn’t come. He and Xander looked at each other for a moment, neither of them looking fully at ease.

“Excuse me?” Laslow said after a beat. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I’m referring to the art of subtlety,” Xander said slowly, giving Laslow a puzzled look. “You know we can’t be too obvious.”

They were _engaged_ , for goodness’s sake.

“Too obvious?” Laslow repeated. The gears in his brain had ground to a halt.

“Yes, of course.” Xander’s frown deepened. “You seem confused.”

“I _am_ confused.”

They continued to look at each other.

Slowly, Xander said, “You _are_ aware that couples in Nohr are expected to engage in little to no public displays of affection, aren’t you?”

Laslow shook his head.

Xander took a moment to digest this, face serious. Then he swiftly nodded, tucked his arms behind his back like he was giving a speech to the troops instead of his fiancé, and got to business.

“It’s simply not done,” he explained. “At least not among the upper-class. It’s not common amongst most city dwellers either, no matter your class range. In all circumstances, it is… _uncouth_ to inquire too forwardly about someone else’s relationships or to flaunt your own. In the countryside, such social customs are a bit more lax. However, it’s still considered bad form to be too obvious about your relations in most places. Especially in court.”

Xander sounded detached. Like it was a scholarly lecture he was delivering and not information that seriously impacted Laslow’s social life.

“You didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it when we were sharing a tent,” Laslow teased, trying to break up the growing tension.

“That was during the war,” Xander said stiffly, as though he were embarrassed by some kind of misstep. “We were on the battlefield and among the troops. It was different then, though still improper. I should have curbed my behavior more. I apologize.”

Laslow was used to things changing after the end of a war. Just not things like this.

“So what does that mean?” he asked. His mind swirled. “What’s considered ‘flaunting your relationship’?”

“All kissing, no matter how chaste,” Xander said factually. “Most pet names as well. In formal situations or amongst royalty, even holding hands with your significant other can be seen as too much. Emotional attachments are meant to be kept private, even if their existence is public knowledge. It’s best to avoid lingering touches or even touching in general when at all possible if you don’t want to learn the intricate ins and outs of when what times are less socially acceptable than others.”

Laslow blinked. “Is it _ever_ acceptable?”

He wasn’t surprised when Xander said, “Not particularly.”

 “How is anybody supposed to know who you’re together with then?” Laslow shifted his weight anxiously.

“With formal announcements, like the one we had.” Xander held up his hand. “Or by simply observing a person’s wedding ring.”

Suddenly Laslow was a lot more aware of the ring on his finger than he had been before.

He nodded slowly, digesting this new information. “Okay. So… I can’t even hold your hand during a meeting because some stuffy old people will make a face about it?”

Xander frowned. Laslow remembered how he had pulled away without so much as a glance.

“Those ‘stuffy old people’ are respected advisors to the court,” Xander said. “It doesn’t matter their age. They’ve been around for a long time and have more experience than even myself in some aspects of ruling. Whether or not you agree with their opinions doesn’t matter. It’s best not to rock the boat if it can be helped.”

“Do _you_ agree with their opinion?” Laslow asked.

Xander shook his head. “It’s not just my advisor’s opinions, Laslow. It’s all of Nohr. The public may turn their noses up even at a king for acting below his station if we were to be too affectionate outside of our private rooms. It’s simply not done.”

“Below his station?” Laslow wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “So there’s no law against it?”

“No one is going to be thrown in jail for being in love,” Xander said, like the suggestion was ridiculous. Which didn’t make Laslow feel any better. “But public displays of affection simply aren’t done. Not if you have any kind of formal station. It’s not acceptable in front of even neighbors, usually. You’ll never be arrested for it, but it _is_ a social faux pas. As the king and his intended, you and I are especially expected to know better. Hence why I’ve been buffering your attempts the past few weeks.”

“I apologize,” Xander added. “I thought you were aware and just disregarding the custom.”

The words _Like you’re wont to do for most things_ went unsaid.

Another beat passed between them—longer this time.

“Okay,” Laslow eventually said. He swallowed.

Xander looked at him with concern, his stony expression finally shifting slightly. “You’re upset.”

“Me? Pfft.” Laslow straightened, resting a fist on his hip for want of something to do with his hands. “What’s there to be bothered about? I just learned something new, is all.”

“Something that bothers you,” Xander pressed.

Laslow averted his eyes. “Well.”

That was all he could think to say.

“Please,” Xander said. He reached out, running his hand over Laslow’s shoulder and down his arm until he could gently encircle Laslow’s wrist with his fingers. “I truly thought you were aware of this before. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Laslow shrugged, struggling for words.

Xander ran his thumb over Laslow’s knuckles. When his thumb brushed Laslow’s ring, Laslow couldn’t help but pull his hand away. He stepped back without thinking, making Xander straighten.

It was a hurtful gesture, obviously, but Laslow couldn’t bare to look at him. His chest felt heavy for reasons he couldn’t entirely explain.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just… are there qualifications for this marriage?”

Xander shifted his weight like he wanted to step forward but didn’t. Shame flooded Laslow for asking the question, but he couldn’t bring himself to take Xander’s hand again. He thought of all the times Xander had pulled away over the past few weeks without explanation because of things Laslow was already expected to know.

“What do you mean?” Xander asked.

Laslow chewed at his lower lip before speaking. “Before, you said people would turn their noses up at you for ‘acting below your station.’ Is there some kind of qualification I should be aware about? If I had been born in a village instead of—”

He bit back the word _Ylisse_. He tried again.

“If I had been anyone besides your retainer or another noble,” he said, “would this still be possible? Could I still be allowed to marry you if I lived on a farm or had become a blacksmith instead of who I am today? Is _that_ allowed?”

Xander shook his head.

“One’s place of birth doesn’t matter to me,” he said earnestly—like he couldn’t see where Laslow was _coming_ from.

“But it would matter to everyone else, apparently,” Laslow said, suddenly tired. He looked at the floor. “And _that_ matters to you.”

“Laslow—” Xander started, reaching out again. He aborted the motion and pinched the bridge of his nose instead, sighing. “It’s not like that.”

“I think it is.”

“It’s simply custom—”

“To keep a man from kissing his fiancé on the cheek after not seeing him all day?” Laslow cut in. He lifted his head. “I’m not saying we should make a big show of it in front of your whole family or anything. But a hug every now and again when we run into each other during lunch would be nice.”

Xander hesitated briefly before saying, “Traditionally, once two people are officially married, being among family is considered the same as being in private. So if it were just Leo or Camilla who were present, for example, small gestures would still be—”

That was too much.

“I have to go,” Laslow said quickly, taking a step back, then another. “If that’s okay. Sorry, I just…”

He couldn’t even finish his sentence.

Xander didn’t call after him. Laslow wasn’t sure he wanted him to.

* * *

 

Laslow almost went back to his room before remembering that _his_ room was now _his and Xander’s_ room.

Funny. A month of officially living together, and he hadn’t made that mistake once. Until now.

It wasn’t actually very funny.

His old room was a bust, and he didn’t want to risk running into anyone in the halls. Especially not Odin or Selena, who would no doubt see through the façade Laslow would slap on his face in an instant. Laslow had no choice but to return to his and Xander’s shared bedroom and bank on the fact Xander would be too busy with more work to come after him immediately.

It was the result of luck and some quick thinking on his feet that he didn’t run into anybody on the way back. Once there, he slipped inside the bedroom as silently as he could.

The door shut. Laslow pressed his back against the wood and breathed in. Then out. In and out again and again until he could look around the room without the lump in his throat growing three sizes.

Finally, when he was mostly sure he wasn’t going to cry, he trudged over to the bed and perched on the edge. He pressed his face into his hands and huffed again.  

The cool metal of his engagement ring knocked against his nose. Laslow squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, hating how aware he was of the ring—of what should have been a symbol of his and Xander’s relationship and not something that mocked him for it.

And there he went, making things more dramatic than they needed to be. He straightened somewhat, slipping the ring off his finger. He turned it over in his hands and examined the gold band, eyeing the diamond nestled perfectly on top.

It wasn’t the quality of the ring that mattered to Laslow. It was what it meant. It was the symbolism of their relationship.

They were still engaged, Laslow told himself. That wasn’t changing anytime soon. He didn’t want it to, and he doubted Xander did either.

There was nothing more public than a wedding to a king. The ceremony would be open to everyone, just as the coronation had been. All of Laslow’s friends would be there. Not his parents, of course, but there was no helping that. Even dignitaries and the other royals from Hoshido would come. That much was already decided. Laslow’s relationship already was and would likely forever be public information.

Why couldn’t he be happy with that?

Another ring—not at all similar looking to the ring Laslow cradled in his hands currently—sat safely tucked away in a box on the dresser. Laslow frequently took it out and looked at it when he was alone, just as he was doing to his engagement ring now.

The ring on the dresser had been his mother’s.

His original mother’s.

In Ylisse, Laslow had carried his mother’s ring around with him at all times. He’d strung it up on a thin chain he’d found and wore it around his neck, tucked under his clothes and nestled close to his heart. After every fight, he’d clutch his makeshift necklace close to make sure it was still there. The thought of losing something so precious had been unbearable. The fact he’d never recovered his father’s ring had been enough of a blow in the first place.

The thought of losing his mother’s ring was just as unbearable now as it has been then. But while Laslow had been trudging through trenches and striking down foes on a regular basis still until fairly recently, he’d never had much of a home before either.

Before the Risen, he’d had a home with his parents, of course. But that had gone up in flames, literally and metaphorically, and Laslow had lived wherever he could afford to lay his head down for a night ever since.

In the future that never happened, Laslow and everyone else slept under the stars or in a tent if they were lucky. After they had jumped ship to a new timeline, Laslow had found himself wandering from town to town in search of the others for months on end. And then when he’d finally met up with Lucina and Chrom again, there had still been a war going on. He’d joined the army and kept up with the daily march. He’d always been on the move back then.

Which was a longwinded way of saying Laslow hadn’t had a place—a _permanent_ place, a _home_ —to return to in a long, long time.

It had taken him a while to realize that as strange and foreign as Nohr seemed at the start, he was still expected to sleep in the same place every day. That his bed wasn’t going anywhere even if Laslow was away for weeks at a time. Eventually, that realization had stuck.

So he’d gotten the box.

It was a small thing. Cute, a little ornate, but not very expensive. It was made out of wood.

The box had caught his eye at the market one afternoon after another failed attempt to invite someone out for tea, and Laslow had bought it without thinking too hard.

Then, the next time he was sent away on a mission, Laslow had taken the chain off his neck and placed his mother’s ring inside. He left the ring behind. It was safer than taking it into battle with him, he’d thought.

Unsurprisingly, he had trouble sleeping that night. When Laslow put a hand over his chest, he found only skin. He’d missed the familiar weight of it on his chest.

When he returned, he’d run to his room and thrown the box open in a panic, worried without reason that the last evidence of his mother was well and truly _gone_.

It hadn’t been, of course. His mother’s ring had sat just where he had left it.

Laslow had nearly thrown the ring back around his neck and tossed the box away right then.

But no. It was safer in his bedroom, he knew. In battle, the chain could snap for any reason and his mother’s ring could easily be lost forever. So long as he kept the ring in one place, then it would stay there, safe forever.

When he moved in with Xander, he’d taken the box with him—ring and all.

Laslow cherished his mother’s ring almost more than his own.

His mother—

The door opened. Laslow jerked up, realizing he had no idea how long he’d been sitting down.

When Xander saw him sitting on the end of the bed, his shoulders dropped slightly. With what, Laslow wondered. Relief?

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be here,” Xander said before Laslow could even think, stepping in to the bedroom. “Nobody has seen you all afternoon. Should I leave?”

It took a moment for Laslow to realize he’d been asked a question.

“No,” he said quickly, closing his fist around his engagement ring. “No, no, it’s fine. I’ll just—”

He moved to stand, unsure of where he would even go, but Xander took a step closer, palms open and raised.

“Please,” Xander said, “stay.”

They looked at each other. Slowly, Laslow sat back down.

Almost hesitantly, Xander crossed the room and sat beside Laslow on the edge of the bed. They didn’t quite touch.

Laslow darted his eyes away, embarrassed for reasons he couldn’t articulate.

He waited for Xander to say something. To apologize or insist Laslow was thinking about this too hard. To say he was sorry or say that Laslow was overreacting. To pick a side so Laslow knew how to respond.

Xander didn’t. He sat next to Laslow quietly.

Laslow squeezed his fists and felt the weight of the metal in his palm. Tilting his head down, he uncurled his fingers and gazed at the ring Xander had given him a month before. It remained unchanged.

After a moment, Xander slipped his hand into Laslow’s left. Laslow closed his fists again, ring in one hand and Xander in the other.

He breathed in.

“My parents were in love, and everyone knew it,” he finally said, unable to take the silence any longer. “Wherever my mother went, my father followed. He always smiled, no matter the circumstances, and she blushed at the drop of a hat. Around each other, that didn’t change. But… it was different somehow, I think. Some days it seemed like every other sentence out of their mouths was about how much they loved each other.”

Xander squeezed his hand. Laslow squeezed back.

“They weren’t obnoxiously in love or anything. But it wasn’t a secret. They held hands in the market, helped each other with their work or errands. My father would tell my mother that he loved her like it was just another fact of life, and my mother would get this look on her face…” He shook his head. “Everyone knew how devoted they were. When I think of them, I…”

When he didn’t finish, Xander brought Laslow’s hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it.

Xander said, “You want a love like they had.”

“No,” Laslow said, looking up. “I want _our_ love. But I don’t want anyone else to ever question that either. I want to be with you.”

When Xander breathed out, Laslow could feel the air on his skin.

“You _are_ with me,” Xander said. “I never want to be with anybody else. Nothing anyone could ever say or do will change that.”

“I know. I’m not worried about that.”

Xander breathed in.

“People from Nohr are private,” he tried. “It’s not in our nature to put what should be private on display.”

“But I’m not,” Laslow said. “I’m not from Nohr.”

Xander pressed his lips together. Upset, but not at Laslow.

“You know how delicate a time this is,” he said. “The war is over, but there are still many out there who don’t like or don’t understand how we got here. Many who don’t like the treaty with Hoshido or who don’t know how to react to my becoming king after all my father did. And with all the changes we’ll be implementing soon…”

He let the implication stand.

They had talked about this part before. The rules, the changes, the uncertainty—how it important that Xander’s first year or two of ruling go as smoothly as possible, especially after how war-torn and full of suffering the last few years had been. His kingship was still new. The kingdom needed stability. Xander and his family had to stand united during the recovery efforts as they tried to gain public favor again. There was no point to fighting against the social current when they would soon be stretching themselves thin enough, Xander meant.

Laslow had adapted to a lot of things over the years. What was one more shift?

But still.

“I know,” Laslow conceded. He could barely stand to look at Xander. “I know how busy we are, and I’m sorry. But… it’s not shameful to be seen with you. To be seen _loving_ you. Love isn’t terrible. I don’t want this—us—to _feel_ like a secret, even if it isn’t. Even if that’s what everybody else is doing in their own marriages. Even if everyone else thinks we’re rude. I don’t want that.”

He squeezed Xander’s hand _tight_. “It’s not shameful.”

“Nobody ever said it was shameful.”

“Then what’s so terrible about holding hands where others can see?”

Xander didn’t immediately have anything to say to that. They lapsed into silence.

Laslow didn’t want to let go of Xander’s hand, irrationally frightened of what might happen if they weren’t holding on to each other. But after a minute or two of not speaking, Xander slipped his hand out of Laslow’s.

Disappointed, Laslow let him go.

Xander gently pried open Laslow’s other hand. He took the ring from Laslow’s palm and slipped it on Laslow’s finger once more. Laslow let him. His heart began to beat again. Hopeful.

They caught each other’s gaze and held it.

“Perhaps,” Xander said, “we could come to a compromise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Cultural differences Nohr VS Ylisse with affection and the Trio are very confused why their lover(s) aren't affectionate in public." Plus a mentioned: "Oh! Bonus fun! In Ylisse, the wedding ring is worn on the right hand and in Nohr on the left." Both from Kimium.
> 
> As you can see, I took that prompt and ran with it.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my tumblr! I get a lot of FE14 meta and fic related asks there, so feel free to browse through my "asks" or "fe14" tag for some extra stuff from me and your fellow readers that you may not see over here. Or send in a question of your own if you had one! Thanks for reading!


	2. quality

 “Selena,” Camilla said from in front of the mirror, comb still caught in her thick locks. Her hand had stilled mid-brush. “You’d tell me if something was bothering you, yes?”

It was more of a statement than a question, but Selena treated it like one anyway.

“Of course,” she said with certainty, shoving her foot into her other boot. She was perched on the chest that sat at the end of their bed. “I tell you everything.”

Camilla hummed. She finished pulling the comb through her hair but didn’t resume brushing.

“So you’re not upset by anything at the moment then,” she said carefully, looking at Selena in the mirror.

Selena lifted her head, making a confused face. She finished tying her shoelaces without looking.

“Definitely not,” she said. “Did I do something?”

Camilla breathed out heavily. It wasn’t quite a sigh.

She spun on her heel and marched over to Selena, wrapping her toned arms around Selena’s shoulders. Selena felt the warmth of Camilla’s lips against her forehead. She reached up to awkwardly hug Camilla back.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Camilla said against her hairline. “As long as you’re happy, dear.”

“The happiest,” Selena confirmed. She kissed the crook of Camilla’s elbow. Then, because she was greedy, she turned and stood so she could kiss Camilla more directly too.

* * *

She noticed Xander and Laslow holding hands when Xander arranged for their regular siblings-plus-retainers meeting, so she figured they had fixed whatever issue that had Laslow looking so mopey in the hallway the other day. Good for them, she thought.

Mostly, however, she thought about Laslow’s ring.

Not that it had changed at all since Xander had first given it to him. But since Laslow was the only other person currently engaged to one of the royals that Selena knew, she liked to compare their rings.

Secretly, of course. She wasn’t _that_ petty.

His ring was nice enough, Selena supposed, catching a good look at Laslow’s finger one afternoon after Camilla’s proposal. She had already elatedly shown off her own ring—Laslow had done the same thing the day of his proposal too, so it hadn’t been just her—but she’d never gotten the time to really _compare_ the two.

Xander definitely hadn’t skimped, Selena thought, though the man probably could have given Laslow a ring made of daisies and Laslow would have cherished it with his whole heart anyway. Xander hadn’t exactly chosen the ring in poor taste either. Selena could give Laslow’s ring the royal seal of approval. It was very nice.

Even so, Selena noted with pride, Camilla had given _her_ the _perfect_ engagement ring. Even Laslow’s couldn’t compare.

The band appeared silver, like most of the engagement rings Selena had seen before. Rather than traditional silver, however, Selena was relatively sure Camilla had given her a platinum ring. Camilla hadn’t said as much explicitly, but she didn’t have to. Selena had a good eye.

The gems Camilla had chosen were just as lovely. There were diamonds, of course, because Selena had _standards_. Tiny diamonds had been inlaid around the entirety of the band, and the largest diamond, which sat at the top of the band, made Selena’s eyes soften when she looked at it.

Not because she loved how nice it looked, though she did. But because amethysts the exact shade of Camilla’s hair had been laid on either side of the central diamond. Camilla’s ring had been designed the same way with rubies replacing the amethysts. What they represented was obvious.

Selena wasn’t even bothered by the fact her hair hadn’t been that particular shade of red until a few years ago. It was how Camilla thought of her now, and Selena loved Camilla for choosing something that symbolized them both like that.

Amethysts and rubies. Subtle but not understated. Selena couldn’t have done it better herself.

She was proud of her ring. Camilla had chosen it well, with love.

So Selena wore it the same way.

* * *

She was reaching for a music box at one of her regular shops when the vendor stopped her with a gruff, “That new?”

She was looking at Selena’s ring.

Selena beamed, freezing mid-reach, happy that _someone_ outside the castle had finally noticed. All of her regular friends knew, of course. Selena had run around the first few days telling everyone. It was technically old news by now. But it was still fresh in Selena’s heart, and there was something gratifying about strangers taking note so Selena could brag again.

“It is,” Selena preened. She flexed her fingers so the ring would catch in the light, hoping there would be more questions.

The vendor—whose name Selena had forgotten despite shopping here often, mostly because Selena could barely get two words out of her on a _good_ day—looked at Selena seriously. She looked at Selena’s ring, her face, and then strangely her other hand. In the end, she settled for averting her eyes.

“Sorry,” the vendor said. “Not my business.”

“Excuse me?” Selena frowned. That wasn’t the reaction she had expected.

The vendor jerked her head towards the music box. “You gonna buy that?”

The answer was yes, so Selena let the subject drop, only a little disappointed. Mostly, she was happy to have the music box. She liked to surprise Camilla with gifts like that.

Just as she predicted, Camilla did like it. It wasn’t a surprise, but Selena mentally cheered anyway.

“Oh, darling,” Camilla cooed that evening, cranking the handle gently and letting the music play. The sound was just as pretty as the engravings in the wood. “It’s lovely. Thank you for thinking of me.”

“I’m just glad you like it,” Selena said smoothly, preening under the compliments. When Camilla set the music box aside to take Selena into her arms, she preened under her touch too.

“I love it,” Camilla assured her. She kissed Selena’s forehead, her cheek, and then hovered over her mouth. “I love _you_.”

Selena giggled, giddy. She wrapped her arms around Camilla’s waist and captured Camilla’s lips with her own. Their lips glided against each other’s smoothly. The difference between their height was only a handful of inches, but when Camilla slid her hands over Selena’s sides and backed Selena up until she was forced to fall back on the bed, Selena didn’t protest. Camilla crawled over her, pressing Selena against the bed with her weight and—

Well, suffice to say, it was a good night.

* * *

Selena woke up to find Camilla already watching her.

“Good morning,” Camilla said softly, eyelids still heavy. Her hair fell flat in strange places. A Camilla who had just woken up was never as composed as a Camilla who had been given time to get herself ready for the day, but Selena was charmed all the same.

Selena, on the other hand, grunted. She squinted against the dim sunlight that had just begun to peak through the windows. Somehow, she managed to raise a fist to scrub at her eyes. Camilla laughed.

“Morning,” she grumbled back. “Wha’ time is it?”

Camilla made a thoughtful sound. “Probably late enough that we should start getting ready soon.”

“And you didn’t wake me sooner?”

“I couldn’t bring myself to wake you up.” Camilla tucked a lock of Selena’s hair behind her ear. “Besides, there’s no rush.”

As much as Selena would have liked to have laid there for longer, once she was awake, that was it. There was no falling back asleep. So Selena sleepily kissed Camilla’s cheek, mindful of how gross their breath probably was before their morning routine, and rolled over, swinging her legs off the side of the bed. She reached for the jewelry on the bedside table.

When she slid her ring onto her hand, however, she was jolted into awareness by the sound Camilla made.

Selena turned, blinking, to see Camilla sitting up as well. Her face was carefully blank, but Selena hadn’t imagined the sound she heard.

“What?” She pulled her legs back up and crawled over to Camilla’s side of the bed, cupping Camilla’s face in her hands. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Camilla said with a shake of her head. The movement jolted Selena’s hands from her face.

Selena reached for Camilla’s hands next, but Camilla pulled away from those too.

In fact, Camilla pulled away from Selena altogether. She threw the covers off and stood up, facing Selena with her arms crossed. Surprised, Selena sat in the middle of the bed, watching Camilla with wide-eyes.

“Camilla?”

“You said you’d tell me if something was bothering you,” Camilla said in a no-nonsense sort of voice.

It was the sort of voice that ran in her family. Selena couldn’t figure out why Camilla was using it now.

“What?”

Selena reached for Camilla a third time, but this time the look on Camilla’s face stopped her. She was frowning fiercely at Selena’s hand.

A quick glance down didn’t reveal anything wrong with the ring. No chips, no dirt. Selena hadn’t had it for long, but she took good care of it.

She looked back at Camilla. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”

“You should be telling me that,” Camilla said.

Selena wracked her brain but came up short. She didn’t know how the morning had gone from normal and sweet to cold and distant so quickly, but whatever had happened, she’d fix it. She just had to figure out how first.

“Camilla, I’m—” No, she really couldn’t think of anything. “I don’t know what I did, but if you tell me, I can—”

“What _you_ did?” Camilla said. “Why won’t you tell me what _I_ did?”

She gestured to Selena’s ring. Once again, Selena tried very, very hard to think of what might be wrong with it and came up with nothing.

Well.

Scratch that. There may have been _one_ thing that bothered Camilla, but it was only tangentially related to her ring. Selena didn’t even think it was a big deal.

Because the thing of it was, Selena’s ring was perfect.

The way Camilla had proposed had been… _slightly_ less than perfect.

But that was fine. Everyone made mistakes. Camilla had arranged everything else so wonderfully that when she slipped the ring onto the wrong hand, Selena had blushed and kept her mouth shut. She had tact, after all. And when Selena woke up the next morning, she put her ring on the correct hand without comment. She’d been to elated to even think of mentioning it. And what would have been the point anyway?

She thought Camilla hadn’t noticed. Apparently, she had. But what that had to do with the now, she didn’t know.

“Okay,” Selena said quickly, dropping her hands. She just didn’t want Camilla to be mad anymore. “I’m sorry for not saying anything. But it wasn’t big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” Camilla’s eyes blazed. “Clearly not!”

“But it’s fine!” Selena’s voice rose to match the volume of Camilla’s own. They weren’t yelling, but it was a near thing. “I didn’t want to embarrass you!”

“Embarrass me? What part of this is less embarrassing than being _mocked_ in silence—"

Selena blanched. “What? How could I possibly be _mocking_ you—"

“—making me guess what I’ve done wrong like some sort of childish game—"

“Making you _guess_?” Selena repeated, mind spinning. “Aren’t we talking about the proposal?”

“I don’t know, Selena!” Camilla threw her arms up. “ _Is_ that what we’re talking about?”

Selena threw her arms up too, mirroring her. “I don’t know! I don’t know why you’re mad at me!”

“ _You_ are mad at _me!_ ”

“But I’m not!” Selena shouted. “I’m not mad!”

They stared at each other. The echoes of _I’m not mad_ bounced around the room, the ridiculousness of the statement juxtaposed by their volume.

Selena really wasn’t mad. But she was going to be if things didn’t get sorted toon.

Her arms dropped back to her side. Camilla did the same.

“Okay,” Selena said with a great sigh. Camilla looked at her, wary. “Let’s start over. Why do you think I’m mad at you?”

Camilla narrowed her eyes like she thought the question to be a trick. When Selena continued to patiently wait for an answer, however, she answered.

“You’ve been hinting that you’re unhappy for days now,” Camilla said, voice even. There was a hint of something under the surface that Selena couldn’t identify, but it made her chest ache. “Even after… And then I thought last night had gone so well, but then…”

Her shoulders were slumping, her walls beginning to crumble, so Selena spread her arms for a hug. Camilla sat heavily on the side of the bed, and Selena scooted closer to wrap her arms around her fiancée.

“I’m _not_ unhappy,” Selena stressed, letting Camilla lean her head against Selena’s shoulder. “Seriously, I’ve never been this happy. Ever.”

Camilla drew in a breath that just barely quivered. “Then why have you been wearing your ring like that?”

“Like what?” Selena looked down again but _still_ could find nothing wrong with the ring. When Camilla didn’t say anything, she said, “ _Please_. I really don’t know what you think is wrong here.”

A beat passed.

“You really don’t know?” Camilla said. She straightened slightly so she could look Selena in the eye.

Selena shook her head. “I really don’t.”

Slowly, and with a lot of looks at Selena’s face like she still had a reason to be wary, Camilla took the ring off Selena’s finger. Selena waited bated breath.

Strangely enough, Camilla put the ring back on Selena’s hand.

On the wrong hand.

“There,” Camilla said when she was done. “That’s how you wear an engagement ring.”

Selena wrinkled her nose. She stopped making a face when she saw the way Camilla was looking at her, but she couldn’t help the shake of her head.

“No, it’s not,” she said. “You wear an engagement ring on your _right_ hand.”

“In Nohr,” Camilla said, “you wear it on your _left_ hand.”

Selena blinked. She looked down at her left hand, which now sported the ring. The weight and feel of it felt strange like this.

When she looked up again, Camilla was slipping on her own ring, also on her left hand.

Selena flexed her right hand.

“Okay,” she said slowly. Then: “Seriously?”

“Seriously.” Camilla’s lips quirked upwards. The atmosphere had lightened considerably in the last few seconds. “You never noticed?”

“Not really.” Selena thought back on it, but she usually noticed the quality of the rings her friends wore, not which hand they were on. “I guess I didn’t think about it.”

She felt a bit silly for not realizing it sooner. Especially in comparison to Camilla.

“Wait,” she said as realization hit her. “That’s what you were so upset about? My ring being on the wrong hand?”

Camilla nodded. “It seems we both misunderstood a few things.”

Selena couldn’t help making another face. “But then what was the big deal? Why couldn’t you just tell me I was doing it wrong?”

Wrong in Nohr, at least. By Ylisse’s standards, Selena had always been right.

Camilla’s face darkened again, but this time, thankfully, it wasn’t directed at Selena. She sighed, squeezing Selena’s hand, their sides pressed together.

“It’s not your fault if you didn’t know,” she said. “But for future reference, you should be aware that Nohr associates several meanings with wearing a wedding or engagement ring on your right hand instead of your left.”

That didn’t sound good.

“Like what?” Selena asked anxiousy.

“Like death of a spouse, for one thing,” Camilla said. “Or divorce. Or simply unhappiness in a relationship. That sort of thing.”

Selena’s face heated. She tried to remember who she had commented about her ring lately, who she had given the wrong impression to, but the only person she could remember was the saleswoman she had bought the music box from the day before. There was a good chance she’d given a lot of people the wrong impression about her and Camilla in the past week.

Whoops.

“Camilla!” Selena squeezed her tight. “You have to know I’d never do that! I could never be unhappy with you! And if I was, I would talk to you about it. I wouldn’t just—”

“I know,” Camilla said, kissing Selena’s forehead. “I know that now. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. You’ve been her so long, sometimes I… forget you haven’t always been by my side. I should have known this was a misunderstanding.”

“Definitely a misunderstanding,” Selena agreed. “I’m so sorry for making you think that.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, dear. I’m glad it’s been cleared up.”

“Me too.”

They held on to each other for a minute more. Selena didn’t want to let go, and Camilla’s arms weren’t exactly loose around her either.

Eventually, Camilla squeezed her once before beginning to pull away. “Come on. We should get ready for the day.”

“Do we have to?” Selena held Camilla’s wrists loosely. “Can’t we stay here? Just a little longer?”

She knew Camilla was going to agree before she even opened her mouth.

“Alright,” Camilla said, smiling and settling back in. “Just for a little while.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/) I get a lot of FE14 meta and fic related asks there, so feel free to browse through my "asks" or "fe14" tag for some extra stuff from me and your fellow readers that you may not see over here. Or send in a question of your own if you had one! Thanks for reading!


	3. normal

There was a ring in Leo’s drawer.

There was _one_ ring in Leo’s drawer.

Odin stared at it blankly. He knew what it meant, and yet somehow his train of thought kept stuttering to a halt every time it tried to form.

Logically, he’d known this day would eventually come. With the war being over and Xander and Camilla getting engaged months ago, of course the possibility had been creeping every closer. But he hadn’t thought about it very hard before, and now that it was here—

The door to the bedroom opened. “Odin, did you find my—ah.”

He looked up guiltily, ring still pinched between two fingers. There was no shoving it back in the drawer and pretending he hadn’t seen it, much as he’d wanted to thirty seconds ago.

From the doorway, Leo quickly looked over his shoulder before stepping into the study and closing the door behind him. Niles was out on some errands already, but somehow this felt more private.

“So you found it,” Leo said, stepping closer to the desk and Odin, expression a familiar sort of frazzled. “Damn. I was hoping for it to be a surprise.”

He didn’t sound very upset that the surprise had been ruined, despite the annoyed look. Truthfully, Odin was thankful for it. He wasn’t sure how he would have handled the ring being pulled out in the middle of dinner or something with zero warning.

Granted, this wasn’t much better. But thirty seconds of prep time was better than no prep time at all

“There’s more than one, obviously,” Leo said when Odin didn’t reply. He coughed. “This one just got finished first. I’ll be visiting the jeweler again sometime in the next few days.”

Odin nodded because it made sense.

Distantly, he thought he should have been more distraught. Mostly, he felt empty.

“So?” Leo asked.

Odin blinked. “So?”

Something flashed over Leo’s face, and then it was gone. “So what are your thoughts?”

What did _Odin_ think?

His gaze flickered between Leo’s face and the ring. He found he couldn’t look at either for very long.

He cleared his throat.

“It’s lovely,” Odin said honestly, somehow managing to talk past the lump in his throat. “Really, you—you made a good choice. Niles will love it.”

Leo visibly relaxed with relief, and any lingering part of Odin that said he might have had this all wrong finally went silent.

“That’s a relief,” Leo said, a light smile played on his features. Odin’s heart ached. “You have no idea how much of a hassle it was to decide on a final design.”

 _I could have helped_ , Odin thought, and then snuffed that thought out as well. He couldn’t have. As much as he would have wanted Niles and Leo to bear something he’d had a hand in designing as well, there was no way his heart could have taken that ache with any dignity. Especially not if he still had to see them every day after this.

So he nodded instead. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s perfect.”

“Perfect, huh?” Leo smiled, mirthful, and it took Odin too long to realize he was supposed to mimic that expression. Leo furrowed his brow. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, of course,” Odin said quickly, finally setting the ring carefully on top of the desk. The tips of his fingers burned where he’d last touched the ring. “Should I not be?”

“You’re just not reacting the way you normally do,” Leo said with some concern. “There have been no comments about your aching blood or the aura of the gems I chose or anything like that so far. And forgive me for being presumptuous, but I thought you’d be more…”

“More?” Odin prompted.

Leo stared at him. “Happy.”

“I am happy,” Odin insisted, straightening. Really, he was happy for them. Even if a chunk of Odin’s chest had gone numb in the last minute, he knew this was great for Leo and Niles. He wasn’t so selfish as to no longer want the best for them. “Really, I mean it. It’s a nice ring. You chose well.”

They deserved each other.

“You don’t sound very happy,” Leo said. “Or normal. Well, normal for _you_.”

“I’m just surprised,” Odin told him, and that—

That much was the truth.

Leo must have sensed his honesty or how much the ring had caught Odin off guard. Either way, he studied Odin for just a moment longer before reaching out. In a moment of weakness, Odin practically threw himself into Leo’s arms.

A grunt left Leo’s mouth when Odin slammed into him. Odin held on to him tightly—too tightly—and felt as though his heart would give out when Leo hugged him back, bending slightly to press his lips against Odin’s forehead. It was familiar and sweet, and thus all the more painful for it.

His heart pounded in his chest. “Leo, you are the guiding star that lights my night sky, and Niles—”

“What, now you’re getting emotional?” Leo chuckled, finally satisfied, and Odin could feel the rumble of his voice in Leo’s chest. “Don’t force yourself now.”

He was joking, obviously, but it still stung. Odin forced himself to swallow a second time, unsure of how much longer he could keep this up. He needed to lay down, or to at least be alone.

“I really am sorry to ruin the surprise,” Leo said against Odin’s hairline. Odin could feel him smiling and shivered. “I wasn’t thinking when I asked you to find that paperwork for me.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Odin forced himself to say. “Selena says love makes us stupid.”

“Doesn’t it?” Leo snorted. “Really. I wanted to surprise you, though.”

Odin closed his eyes, feeling the weight of Leo’s arms around him. “Consider me surprised.”

* * *

Though it felt like time had stopped for Odin, in truth, it ticked steadily onward. After a while, Leo swore Odin to secrecy—a quiet “Don’t mention this to Niles, alright?” that Odin responded to with a dumb nod—and kissed him with another muttered promise he was too out of it to hear. Then he left to continue on with his day.

It was only mid-morning. Leo had a ring in his drawer, and the world kept on spinning.

Odin had things to do as well, but he left the study in a daze and all but collapsed on the long lounge chair in the bedroom instead. He felt more wrung out than he ever had after a battle.

He was looking around the room, noting the things he had left laying about and wondering if he would be moving into his old rooms again sometime soon, when Niles finally returned.

Odin barely registered the click of the door, but he did jerk up when Niles stepped in front of him. The archer looked down at Odin with his signature smirk.

“You look worn out,” Niles commented, “which wouldn’t be that unusual, except for the fact I had nothing to do with it for once.”

Odin told himself he was happy for them.

“Unless you and Leo got up to some fun while I was out.” Niles arched a brow.

In no way did he feel like his usual self, but Odin remembered Leo’s comment about acting out of character. He’d recovered enough to make the attempt, at least.

“So you have returned at last!” Odin said, choosing to ignore everything else Niles had said since he’d barely been paying attention until just now. “What trails and tribulations have assailed your visage this morn?”

“No trials yet, but it’s still early.” Niles loomed further over the lounge chair. “I can think of a few things if you’re looking for a warmup, however. Or to get worn out. Your choice.”

“Can you hug me?” Odin blurted.

Niles’s eyebrows rose even higher in surprise, but he plopped down next to Odin on the chair anyway. There was more than enough room for them both, so long as they stayed close.

“You’ve set the bar for your first daily hurdle rather high,” he said sarcastically, wrapping himself around Odin. He felt cold, because Niles was always cold. “What brought this on?”

Odin shrugged, hugging him back. He reclined against the lounge seat and took Niles with him so Niles could lay more or less on top of him.

“Can’t a daring and skilled—”

“And humble.”

“—and humble dark mage simply crave the warm embrace of his partner in metaphorical crime?”

Niles shifted, settling against him. “Absolutely not. You and I both know I’m not warm in either sense of the word.”

Odin felt icy fingers grace his neck. Goosebumps broke out on his skin.

“You’re warm in the way that matters,” he conceded.

Niles hummed in disbelief. “So what’s really eating at you then?”

“Nothing,” Odin said. His eyes fell shut so he didn’t have to look Niles in the eye any longer. “I simply craved your familiar aura mingling with my own spiritual essence.”

Niles didn’t even make a quip about that one, which only proved that he’d noticed Odin’s behavior despite his best attempts otherwise.  Damn.

“I was gone for an hour,” Niles said.

“My love for you exceeds lifetimes.”

“Let’s try to get through this one first.”

Odin didn’t offer up anything more at that, and Niles, because he was kinder than he pretended to be, didn’t push. He let Odin hold him there, memorizing the weight of their bodies against each other, for quite some time.

* * *

The rest of the week went by achingly slowly.

Odin tried his best to curb his behavior, but he knew he hadn’t succeeded. Leo gave him more than one warning look that Odin took to mean that he shouldn’t spill the beans on the ring. Little did Leo know, he wasn’t planning on it. Odin could barely stand to think of the thing.

Luckily, Leo seemed to chalk any lingering strangeness up to the secret of the ring. Not so luckily, Niles was still in the dark, and he kept giving Odin increasingly odd looks that Odin knew meant he was going to corner Odin soon if something didn’t give.

Odin tried his best. He really did. He gave his normal speeches, went on his normal rounds, wrote his normal entries in the Manuel of Justice. He just didn’t _feel_ normal. And everybody else clearly noticed.

He kissed Leo harder than he should have and held Niles closer than normal when the sun went down. He trailed after both of them like a sad puppy, which he knew because Selena and Laslow both told him as much when they saw him. Odin was trying, but it was _hard_.

It was even difficult to sleep at night. Odin laid in bed every evening wondering if this would be the last chance he’d ever have to sleep in the same bed as Niles and Leo.

There’d probably be one more night, he told himself again and again, eyelids drooping but mind buzzing with awareness. One more night after the proposal, before it was announced to everyone else. When it was the last time, he’d know.

And he did. Because true to Leo’s word, he must have returned to the jeweler within a few days of Odin stumbling upon his secret. At the end of that week, he caught Odin just outside the library and told Odin to be sure he returned to their bedroom by six o’clock.

“It’s a surprise,” Leo said carefully, giving Odin a look. They both knew what the “surprise” would be.

Odin nodded, ignoring the crater-like disappointment in his chest. “I’ll be there.”

Looking pleased, Leo darted a look up the empty hallway and kissed him quickly. Then he left, appearing vaguely embarrassed the way he always did whenever he kissed Odin outside their bedroom. Niles always reacted the same way as well, though his pleasure had always came across as more scandalous.

Odin wished the kiss had lasted longer. He wasn’t ready for it to end—any of it. And even if this chapter had to come to a close one way or another, he’d been hoping he wouldn’t have to be there to see it in person.

But that was a rather selfish thought. Odin owed them this.

So despite the hours dragging by both achingly slowly and terrifyingly fast at the same time, he found himself standing outside their chamber door slightly before six.

For a split second he almost knocked, then remembered that would be ridiculous. He walked in.

Despite being early according to the clock, it still appeared that he was late to the occasion. Leo and Niles were already standing up and talking near the window. Leo, face a familiar flustered red, held Niles’s hand.

“Come now, Leo,” Niles drawled, though he was clearly pleased. “I know you better than anyone, don’t I? I’ve known you were up to something for two weeks now.”

“That long?” Leo groaned. “And you couldn’t at least pretend for my sake?”

“Now where would the fun have been in that?”

“Did you go snooping through my—”

“Odin,” Niles said smoothly, turning his attention away from Leo and clasping his hands behind his back. “Leo has something he wants to discuss with us.”

Odin had already seen the ring on his hand. It looked even nicer on Niles’s finger than it had in the drawer.

Leo spun. “Odin! You’re late.”

“I’m right on time, actually,” Odin said from the doorway. It had shut behind him, but he thought about leaving again anyway. “Though it looks like I missed the excitement. So maybe I should…”

“No, no,” Niles waved off the suggestion. “You’ll want to stick around for this one. Our prince may even get on his knees.”

“Don’t bother, Niles,” Leo said. “He already knows. Both of you did, apparently. What was the point of me even trying to keep it a secret?”

That last part seemed directed at himself, so Odin didn’t answer. Niles, looking happier than Odin had seen in quite some time, answered for him.

“It’s the thought that counts,” Niles said. He was no longer hiding his hands. “The anticipation leading up to the main event. Go on now. I want to see—”

Leo reached into his pocket, their voices overlapping. “You are both the most frustrating people in my life—”

“I should go,” Odin said quickly.

That stopped everyone in their tracks immediately. Niles and Leo both looked at Odin like he had grown a second head.

“What?” Niles said.

Leo stepped closer. “But I only just gave Niles the—"

“Yeah, no, I know,” Odin said, cutting him off. He wasn’t sure he could stand to hear it aloud. “I’m—really happy for you. Congratulations, both of you.”

Niles’s face had gone deathly serious. Leo’s hands had dropped to his side, expression confused.

“Stop,” Leo said. “Back up for a moment, will you?”

Niles stepped beside him. Odin tried very hard not to look at his hand. “What makes you think you’re not included in this?”

“I am, but—”

Didn’t they realize how painful this was for him? Was Odin the only one aware of what this meant on the whole? Or did they expect nothing to change even after Niles and Leo were married? He hoped it was the latter. Maybe Odin could learn to adjust to that.

“I just—"

Leo shook his head. “Odin, just wait a moment. I have your ring right here.”

That gave Odin pause. “ _My_ ring?”

Niles stared at him incredulously as Leo pulled out another small object from his pocket.

Odin stared at it.

It was a ring.

Another ring. One distinctively different from the ring Niles now sported on his own hand.

But it fit with the theme. Because whereas Niles’s ring had been topped with a sleek, jewel encrusted crescent, the ring Leo held out now—

“It’s… a sun,” Odin said lamely.

It was, in fact, a sun. A gleaming silver sun sat on top of the ring, a bright yellow jewel nestled in the center. It matched Niles’s ring perfectly. Odin couldn’t stop staring.

“Did you seriously think I was going to propose to you and Niles at separate times?” Leo asked. “I was going to wait until you arrived, but Niles got ahead of me.”

“You were just so obvious,” Niles said.

“To you, maybe.”

They were teasing each other. Niles looked less tense, and Leo looked rather assure of himself. Odin, meanwhile, was having difficulty wrapping his mind around where this was going.

Leo broke their banter to look at Odin again. “Well? Should I get on my knees after all?”

Odin sucked in a breath.

He took the ring because he wasn’t sure what he would do if Leo actually got down on one knee. The ring felt both weightless and right in his hand. Part of Odin desperately wanted to shove it onto his finger, but he refrained. He still felt wary. This wasn’t going the way he had expected it to.

And just as he was realizing they weren’t all on the same page after all, Leo took a third— _third_ —ring out of his pocket and slipped it onto his own finger. Odin didn’t have the chance to examine in properly, but he thought it was shaped like a star.

His own words echoed in his head. _Leo, you are the guiding star that lights my night sky._

How often had he said that? How often had either of them caught Niles outside late in the night when he couldn’t sleep, staring up at the moon? How long had—

“Is that a yes then?” Leo asked jokingly.

“I think you’ve really left him speechless this time,” Niles commented. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

Odin swallowed. “I…”

Niles and Leo both peered at him, interests piqued, when the first word out of Odin’s mouth wasn’t a yes like they clearly expected. But Odin was grappling with the fact he had been expected to say yes to anything at all.

“You…” He shook his head. “You’re not marrying Niles?”

“I certainly plan on it,” Leo said at the same time that Niles said, “I should hope so.”

Odin looked at them. He looked at the ring in his hand. When he lifted his head, Leo and Niles wore the same expressions of concern as they had before.

“Odin,” Niles said in a voice that indicated he thought Odin to be increasingly thick. “Leo is proposing to both of us right now.”

Odin couldn’t help it. “Is he really?”

Niles gave Leo a sidelong look. “I thought you said he knew?”

“He held your ring in his hands earlier this very week,” Leo countered. To Odin, he said, “I told you I was going to go back to the jewelers for the others.”

“Yeah,” Odin said. “For the _other_ ring. Your ring.”

It was Leo’s turn to look confused. “What? You thought I was only getting two rings?”

Niles’s expression could only be described as pure bafflement.

“Why would Leo do that?” he asked.

Odin shifted his weight. His fingers curled around the ring protectively.

“Because you can only marry one of us,” he said, suddenly unsure.

Leo stared dumbly. “You spent this whole week thinking I was going to propose to _only_ Niles?”

“You were going to let him propose to _just_ me?” Niles asked, sounding strangled.

Odin ducked his head.

“You can only marry one person!” he defended. “Leo is a prince! It made sense at the time!”

“How does any of that make sense?” Niles said tensely. “Do the last five years mean nothing to you?”

Leo shot him a quick look. “Niles—”

“No!” Odin said quickly. He corrected, “I mean—they did. They _do_. I mean—”

He huffed, the exhaustion of the week rushing back. Even if Leo had proposed to both of them, the prospect of which delighted Odin to no end, that still didn’t change anything. Odin had still been right from the start.

He clenched his fist, feeling the bite of the metal in his palm. “This doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, Leo is the one who has to get married for the kingdom. And he can’t marry both of us.”

“I _absolutely_ can,” Leo said assuredly. “There is nothing stopping us from doing exactly that.”

Odin lifted his head and caught Leo’s determined gaze. Next to him, Niles looked just as steadfast.

Something in Odin wavered. Uncertainly, he asked, “…Can you really?”

“I am a prince,” Leo said, stopping even closer so there was almost no space between them. “The benefit of that is nobody is that has a say in what I choose to do.”

Niles joined him and took the ring from Odin’s hand, slipping it onto Odin’s finger without giving him a chance to argue. It was his left hand, he noted strangely. That was something for later.

“Odin,” Niles said, “do you remember when we had that talk about privacy in Nohr and how I like being affectionate with you in public because it scandalizes everyone else?”

Odin nodded. “Yes.”

“Then this is like that,” Niles said. He squeezed Odin’s hands.  

Still confused, Odin looked at Leo.

“Odin,” Leo said slowly, “I don’t know what it’s like where you’re from, but you know how fiercely private the people of Nohr are.”

Odin nodded, because he did know. Niles had literally just mentioned it.

“So Niles is right,” Leo continued. “What I do or don’t do is nobody’s business but my own. I can have two husbands if I so wish. And it’s not just because I’m a prince. What anyone else does in their own marriage is up to them. _This_ is up to us.”

A marriage between more than two people. In his heart of hearts, it was something Odin had always craved for them, but it sounded too good to be true.

A thread tugged at Odin’s heart.

He started, “But you and your sibling’s mothers—”

“They were not in agreement with each other,” Leo said matter-of-factly. “They all wanted my father to themselves. But this isn’t like that.”

After a pause, Odin nodded. That… made sense, he supposed.

The pieces were slowly starting to rearrange themselves in his mind. What had once been filled with disappointment began to shift with the incoming light of hope. And, finally, it clicked.

Odin stared at them with wide eyes. “You can marry both of us!”

“Now he gets it,” Niles said with a roll of his eyes.

That sarcasm melted into affection when Odin surged up to kiss him. Niles leaned into him, soft and pliant under his lips. Odin was almost sorry to let him go, but he had to get his mouth on Leo too. Because this wasn’t the last time they would be together at all. It was the _beginning_.

“So are you going to say yes or not?” Niles said when Odin pulled back from Leo, who had kissed Odin back just as sweetly.

“Oh!” Odin let go of Leo’s shirt. “Leo, I have already sworn my life to you in your service. And Niles! Wearer of shadows, keeper of secrets, you are my partner in every sense of the word. And now, together, we shall—”

“So that’s a yes then.”

Odin shut his mouth, heart thumping wildly in his chest. This was really happening. “Yes!”

“Thank the gods,” Leo said with a groan he didn’t really mean. “You certainly know how to make things more difficult than they need to be.”

“It’s part of the charm,” Niles assured him.

All that worrying had been for nothing after all. Odin would have felt more ridiculous if the sheer _relief_ pumping through his veins wasn’t so palpable. Niles and Leo must have sensed it somehow, because they softened when they looked at him.

Some aspects of Nohrian culture were cold and hard to understand. But, Odin thought, leaning in for another kiss, this was one thing he could get behind.

“Really,” Niles said after they parted again, lips tingling. “You thought Leo was going to marry only me?”

“Why wouldn’t Leo marry you?” Odin asked. “You’re incredible.”

He received another strange look for that.

“You—”

“Can we at least move this to the bed if we’re going to keep talking about this?” Leo asked with a quirk of his eyebrow. He’d clasped Niles’s hand in his own, and he was running his thumb over the back of Niles’s hand. He gave Odin a look that said millions.

So they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/) I get a lot of FE14 meta and fic related asks there, so feel free to browse through my "asks" or "fe14" tag for some extra stuff from me and your fellow readers that you may not see over here. Or send in a question of your own if you had one! Thanks for reading!


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